Not Gonna Leave You Behind
by natarri
Summary: Ellie and Riley have been best friends since the day they met. Riley comes out of the mall unharmed, but Ellie is bitten. Scared, Ellie seeks help from the Fire Flies... without the help of Riley. An AU. RATED M because they like swearing a lot and there will be some violence.
1. Prologue

**Hello everyone! Well this is the first of many chapters to come, hope you enjoy! Please leave a review and let me know what you think!**

**I don't own anything from the Last of Us, although I wish I did.**

**Enjoy**

_Prologue_

We dance to I Got You Babe by... what was her name, Etta James?

I've always loved this song. I'd listen to it every evening before going to bed and always made sure to rewind the tape to the beginning just so I could listen to it again next time I had the chance. I guess out of all the things I own, that tape was the most important to me. Ever since she gave it to me, I hadn't cared so much for the Walkman anymore, as long as I had the tape I was good. Never really wanted anyone knowing that though, I kind of liked having the reputation of a bad ass. Who wouldn't?

God I fucking suck at dancing, but she's here with me so I don't mind really.

She does this shuffle move with her legs and I try to mimic her steps, failing miserably. Jesus, I don't know how I'm not dying of embarrassment. But fuck it, I'm having fun.

Suddenly I realize something... She's leaving._ She won't be here to watch me dance like a moron anymore. No more late night adventures to our old hang out spots. No more scaring competitions, no more stupid truth or or dares. No more anything._

I feel my feet freeze up, my hands get sweaty and realize I've stopped dancing.

She notices and tries to reach for my hands. "Here." _Crap, don't touch my ugly, sweaty hands! _I pull away only to get a saddened reaction from her."What is it?" _Don't fucking say anything. You know she's wanted this forever, for once don't be so selfish._ "Hey." she starts again. "What's wrong?" A lump in my throat forms as I try to stop myself from saying anything stupid. My whole body goes numb and I don't notice when I start speaking. "Don't go." I sound weak and desperate. Great.

Her face softens and her eyes look into mine. I can see her trying to contemplate the situation. I desperately want her to stay, but, she needs this. I think.

She lowers her head and I follow her gaze down to her hand. It comes up and reaches for the Firefly pendant around her neck. She grabs the chain and tugs at it, her eyes look back into mine as she pulls the chain off, throwing the thing to the floor.

_Wait, did she just quit the Fireflies? _

Before I realized what happened I noticed that I had leaned in and gently pushed my lips against hers. They are so soft and comforting.

I pull away a second later. _Wow, did I really just do that?_ I can't help but give a goofy smile. Voice rash and weak I say, "Sorry." Her face lights up and she returns the same goofy smile. "For what?" She sounds happy, like she was waiting for me to do that. God I hope that's not me over analyzing it.

I glance down at my shoes, feeling a bit shy. "What do we do now?" I look back up at her. "We'll figure it out." she shrugs. "But I doubt Marlene is going to go for it-"

I notice a rustling noise behind her. Lights started to flicker and there was movement. _What the fuck? _"Wait." There was screaming and grunting, and it was getting louder. _Oh my god. _

Music still blasting on the sound system, they must have heard us.

The first dark figure that shows itself spots us right away. It grunts and lunges itself towards us.

My body tenses up. _We need to get out of here._ "Riley!" I scream.

BAM! She plants a bullet right between the infected's eyes. She grabs my clammy hand and pulls me off the glass counter. "Come on, we got to get the hell out of here!"

We make our way out of the store and into the hallway we first came through. We run in through the double door, my heart's pounding, and I'm shaking, but I'm too terrified to notice.

"Barricade the door!" The infecteds' screams are getting louder. _Crap! For things that are suppose to be dead they run fast..._

Riley disappears from my sight as I stand frozen looking at the closed door. "Ellie!" she screams. I snap out of the stiff state and look back at her, she is pushing a huge metal box. I rush to her side, desperately trying the get the box in front of the entrance to seal it. There, done.

"This way." she grazes my arm and I look over to her now running to the next exit. My body is still shaking. I forgot something back in the other room. "Ellie!" she screams. I force my legs to chase after her. "W-What about our backpacks?" "Fuck the backpacks!" My heart drops. _No... my Walkman, the water-guns...Riley's tape... _The music was still blaring from the other room. _At least I get to listen to it one more time before we get out of here.__.._

I see her make it to the next door. "Oh shit!" Riley slams those doors shut. Grunts and groans coming from the other side of it.

She takes a mannequin arm and seals the door with it. That won't hold long.

"Um..." At this point I have no idea what to do. I feel helpless and scared. I start to stick closer to Riley.

"Over here!" She runs over to a big metal door and crouches down. I run over to her side. "Help me out." Kneeling I grab the underside of the door and help her lift it up. Damn it's heavy, but we get it up a few feet. "Find something to prop it up with. I'll hold it." I do as she says, crawling through the open space and quickly finding a cart I could use. "Hurry!" I grab it in a panic and rush myself back to Riley. _Fuck, why does everything have to be so heavy! _

As I struggle to bring the cart back I hear the infected getting closer. "Ellie, they're almost through. Ellie!" _I'm coming!_ I prop up the door and she crawls underneath. But as she does so, one of those things appear behind her, disparately trying to grab her. Two bangs and the thing is dead on the floor, drenched in its own body fluids. "Let's go!"

We run to the next door, which seems to be locked. Thank god Riley has a gun. She shoots the lock, opening the door and we sprint out. The music disappeared behind me. I didn't realize it, but I found some comfort in having my favorite song play in the background while we were running for our lives. But now that it was gone I could feel everything becoming more real, more terrifying than before, even though I am still with Riley. But as long as I don't loose her, I know I can keep it together.

Most of the sprint through the mall is starting to become a blur, all I can focus on is Riley in front of me, and the infected following behind. _Wait, scratch that, there are more coming from the left._ I dodge the infected trying to grab me, and hear a scream. Riley!

One of them grabbed her. _Don't touch her!_ I grab the knife I forgot I had and jump on the predator's back, stabbing him a fuck load of times to get him off of my best friend. One last stab to the face, the lifeless body falls to the floor. "Wow." I hear Riley say.

My heart is pounding in my ears. _I'm not letting anything happen to you._

We keep running. Riley is faster than me, but its okay, she's the important one out of the two of us. If one of us has to get left behind it should be me.

"Ellie!" I trip over the edge of the wooden platform I tried jumping across. "I'm good, I'm good. Just keep going." And she does.

I quickly pull myself up and force my aching legs to take me the rest of the way.

"We're almost out!"

We enter a room I've never been in before. The sun is already rising and coming in through the windows. _A ray of hope._

I climb up some shit to get closer to the open window. Riley lifts herself up on an unsteady platform._ Shit, this looks like it'll fall._ I hesitate for a second and look up at her. "Give me your hand!" she says as she reaches out toward me. I see her lean on the platform and it starts moving forward. I jump back, barely dodging the platform coming down on me.

It falls all the way to the ground and crushes one of the infected that was trying to climb up. I quickly look back up, Riley was safe and sound. But now I have no way of getting the where she is. _FUCK!_

I look behind me again and two more infected are running at me. "Riley!" I scream.

My body freezes up again. _ No, no, no, no, not now. Please not fucking now! _

The best I can do is stand my ground. Holding on to my knife for dear life, I force my right arm out to point it at these motherfuckers. "ELLIE!"

The first one pushes me back, but I stay standing as I stab it once in the shoulder and another time in the face. The adrenalin was rushing through me as I stab it one more time in the gut for good measure. _Yea, fuck you! _More guns shots are heard and I see the last infected dead on the floor along with the one I just annihilated.

I let out a breath, heart still pounding in my head and face burning from the sprint. I take a moment to let my breath catch up to me.

"I think it's clear." I announce. Riley jumps down from the window and looks around before walking over to me, a half terrified half proud look on her face. "I think so too." I smile.

"Come on, let's get out of here before more show up." We do just that.

Running straight for another open window that wasn't too high for us to reach. We jump out and land on the roof of the building next to us. Not stopping to look behind us, we keep running. Away from the infected that weren't suppose to be in this city in the first place...and... away from our memories. _Goddamnit! My stuff..._

After running and jumping across a few more rooftops, we stop to catch our breaths one more time. Riley sits at the edge of the roof and folds her arms on the railing. I join her, mimicking her sitting position, sitting straight, arms crossed in front of me.

We sit in silence for what feels like forever. Or maybe, what I was hoping would be forever.

"That sure is quite the view, huh?" She finally says, looking out on to the sun rising over the cityscape. I look over at her mesmerized expression, smile on her face and sparkle in her eyes, I can't look away. "Yeah. It is."

Her smile gets bigger and she looks back at me.

Her expression changes right away though. Smile vanishing and dark eyes looking worried. "Ellie." I start to feel a sharp pain somewhere. I'm not sure if it is my heart, or my brain, or whatever. Maybe it's the look she's giving me. "Ellie, your arm."

My nerves start to turn back on. The pain I just felt started getting worse as I came to realize it was real. I look down at the damaged limb. It's covered in blood. Whether it's my own blood or the blood of the infected I stabbed, I wasn't too sure. I wipe away the grim and dirt, and see the teeth marks staring back at me. More red comes out of the open wound, and the pain is no longer just uncomfortable. "No...no, no, no, no, no." was all I could say as I try wiping away the dirty blood that kept coming out of my forearm.

**Aaaand with that we will now be going in to Chapter 1. Hoped you liked it! Remember to drop me a review, it'd be much appreciated. Also, be nice, this is my first fic being published xDD**

**Cheers**


	2. Chapter 1: What Do We Do?

**Welcome back! Thanks to everyone who's either reviewed, followed or faved the story so far, I really appreciate it! If I get a good response from this story I will try keeping updates as regular as possible. **

**So with no further ado, have fun reading!**

_**What Do We Do?**_

_Shit... It's all my fault..._

It would have been close to noon by now. The sun is right above us, shining like there's nothing wrong. But clearly...

"FUCK! FUCK! FUUUUUCK!" Ellie is on the other side of the roof smashing some pots and scaring off the birds that are perched there. She has a metal pipe in her hands, swinging everywhere she looks. I really wouldn't want to be caught in her line of fire.

I sat there waiting and watching as she began to tire out. Her arm has not stopped bleeding, and she refuses to let me touch her to patch it up. Who can blame her though? It's all my fucking fault.

I should have jumped down the second I knew she wasn't going to make it up. I would've had an easier shot if I went for the infected from ground level. I don't know. Or maybe we would've both been bitten... Either way it happened, and now I'm going to have to live knowing I let my best-friend down.

She throws the pipe over the railing of the building and a few seconds later I hear a distant clatter. As long as no guards heard or saw that we'll be fine.

Ellie looks up at the sky and doesn't move. She makes no sound, except for the heavy breathing. I want to go over there, hug her and tell her everything will be okay. My mind trails off; _I shouldn't have brought her to the mall. I should have known there were going to be infected around. Everyone is always getting infected, the military just does a good job of hiding it, remember? You said it yourself..._

I hear a sigh beside me. Ellie sits herself down on my left and I force myself to look at her. Her eyes are red.

There's an awkward silence before she looks over at me.

Our eyes meet. I hesitate, "There's-um, there's some more stuff over there you can break." Anything to get more time to think of what I can say. She needs to hear something that will make her feel better.

Ellie shakes her head and rubs her irritated eyes. She sobs silently.

The guilt feels like its eating me alive. _I should have been the one to get bitten, not you. You're the more important one. Hell, you've got Marlene, the leader of the Fireflies looking after you._ Oh shit, Marlene. _If she ever finds out what happened to Ellie she'd kill me._

"What are we going to do?" Ellie says through soft sobs. I bite my tongue because I have no idea what the right answer could be. _How do you tell a 13 year old, who's barely lived her life, that she has 2 days max before it's all over?_

Silence.

There is only one good choice. "Come on. I'm getting you patched up." I get up from my spot on the floor and offer a hand to Ellie. She looks at me, tears still falling and I can see she is fatigued, but she grabs my hand anyway. I lift her up. "And then we are going to have some fun." I smile with out looking at her and turn away, to the direction of the next building.

"Fun?" I jump over and make it without any trouble. "Come on!" I say as I look back at her. She is still on the other rooftop, looking at me with a blank expression on her face.

"Are you serious right now?" She is half yelling.

"Ellie, come on. Just jump over here." I start to make my way to the next building, "No." I stop and look back. "No?" She frowns at me. "I just get bitten and all you want to do is have fun?"

My heart drops. "No, it's not like that Ellie." "Then what is it like?" She's talking too loud. We can't get caught by guards. Not now. "Ellie, just please come over here and we can talk like normal human beings."

"Yeah, like normal human beings." _Is she mocking me?_

"I wish I had the option to stay a normal human for longer. But all _Riley_ cares about is having fun." The words hit me hard. "Ellie..." "No, you know what? I'm done." Tears start forming in my eyes. "I'm done having fun. It's having fun that got me in this situation."

My throat became dry. "No, I just..." My voice was raspy, like I hadn't used it in a long time. _This is not what I meant to happen._

"Look, Riley. I know that you want me to enjoy my last few hours, but... just think about how I am feeling for one second. You know, instead of only thinking about how it's your fault." _Is it really that easy to see?_

"I don't have much time and I know that." I feel hot tears roll down my face when she says that. "I just want to be able to feel bad about it for a bit." I feel myself frown. "I know it's weird. But I just don't know what else to do anymore."

I feel something go off inside me. I wipe my face dry and join Ellie again on the other building. Staying a few feet away from her, "You know, I was thinking about it. And the way I see it, we have two options." She is giving me her full attention now.

"One, we could sit around and mope all day. Or two, we could make the best of it, any way we can. Just go crazy. Who cares? I'm not going back to the Fireflies, or even that military school. So I am as good as dead too." The words just came out of me and I saw Ellie stare at me with those green eyes. Those perfect green eyes... _How am I going to live without you?_

She walks up to me without breaking eye contact. "Why wouldn't you go back to the Fireflies?" _Because I just want to stay with you._ "Well – I – Marlene would kill me if she found out you died because of me."

Her brow shoots up. "Wait, Marlene." _What? _"She's dealt with stuff like this before, like, people who are infected." It sounded like a question to me, so I answered, "I guess..." "So maybe she knows what to do!"

_Oh hell no! _

"Ellie, listen to me. If you try looking for Marlene's help with that bite mark on your arm you will get shot. The Fireflies do not mess around when they know someone's infected!" I clench my fists. "I've seen it."

"Marlene cares about me, remember? My mom and her use to be close. She can't do anything to me." I begin to get nervous. "Jesus Ellie! Do you not hear yourself? You're starting to sound desperate."

"Well, maybe it's because I am." My hand loosens the fist it made. "And to be honest, if she were to kill me, it's better than becoming one of those things." She points back at the mall.

I let out a breath after realizing I'd been holding it. "I get it." I finally hear myself say. "But if you go looking for the Fireflies you're going to have to do it on your own." Ellie's eyes widen and I realize what I had just said sounded terrible.

_If she finds Marlene maybe she **will **try to help... But there's no doubt she'd literally kill my ass for letting Ellie get bitten._

"I can tell you were to find the Fireflies, but I am not going with you."


	3. Chapter 2: Follow the Light

**Follow the Light**

I wince at the pain in my forearm. My hand comes up and I grasp the bandaged wound. _Thanks..._

I crouch behind a dumpster as some military patrol passes by. It's already gotten dark and I'm still making my way to the Fireflies – alone.

(*flashback*)

"What do you mean you're not going with me?" I can feel my face starting to get hot. But Riley looks composed and calm, as usual. "I mean, I'm not coming along with you. It's too dangerous."

"Oh, and so you'd rather let me go on my own? Way to be selfish. Thanks!" I take a step back and turn around.

"You might want to know where to go before you leave." I stop dead in my tracks and slowly spin back around to face her. Expression still calm and collected, not at all like me, with my puffy eyes and probably red face.

"Pttf." I didn't want to say anything that would make me sound more stupid. She starts walking in my direction. Not sure what to do I just stand there. She reaches out, grabs my right hand and pulls me towards her. She kneels me down and looks at my wound. "Oh, that's gross." _Well fuck, I didn't know that, please tell me more Riley. _

She reaches in to her pockets and pulls out a small bottle of alcohol. I give her a weird look. "Winston had a smaller bottle of whiskey laying around, I couldn't resist" She chuckles at her own lame joke. _What a loser. _She then takes off her collared shirt, leaving herself with only the white tank. She starts ripping the shirt in to long pieces.

She soaks one of the pieces in the alcohol and wipes it on the bite. A burning sensation spreads through my arm and up to the rest of my body. "Son of a BITCH! That HURTS!" It looks like she tries to hide an amused smile. _Fucking bitch._ "That means it's helping." She says with a mocking tone. I don't think she understands how mad I am right now.

She turns the cloth over and starts wiping with the other side, the bite becoming easier to see with every stroke. _Fuck, that thing bit me hard._ The teeth marks left behind are deep. "It's a good thing the bite wasn't any deeper, or you would have seen bone." Riley says.

_I swear, sometimes it's like she can read my mind. _

A few more wipes and it was clean. Before anymore blood seeped out she takes some more pieces of her shirt and starts tying them around my arm. Making sure it was tight.

"There, that should slow down the bleeding." I say nothing, but I feel like I'm giving her a look. She looks down for a second and then grabs the supplies that were left over. "Here." Handing me the alcohol and shirt scraps. "I think you'll make better use of this than me. Remember to change the bandages if the blood starts to seep through, you don't want any Fireflies thinking you got bitten."

I give a small nod. "Thanks" I whisper, but I doubt she heard it. She was already standing and looking over the north side of the building. She makes that come here gesture with her head. "Ellie, look."

I quickly stuff everything she gave me in my pockets. Man I look stupid with fat looking pockets. Riley laughs quietly again, this time at me, and I can't help but smile. _Okay yeah. Now I __**know **__I look stupid. Thanks again Riley._

"Look" She starts. "Just follow the light." I find it funny how she quotes the Fireflies, considering she isn't one anymore. "So... What is that suppose to mean?" She looks out and I follow her gaze. There is a red street light flickering a few buildings over. "The Fireflies usually use red lights to let other Fireflies know where they are at, whether they'd be street lamps, car lights, or whatever. If they need to, they'll tint lights red."

"Wouldn't somebody outside of the Fireflies be able to find that out?"

She looks back at me with a half grin on her face. "It's worked for them for a couple weeks now. But don't take them too lightly. They change up their tactics pretty often."

_Oh._

"But for now, just head in that direction, you'll know where to go as long as you follow the red lights." I stand in silence for a second. "Riley." I didn't want to say anything, but something inside is making me. "I wish it didn't have to end like this between us."

She takes a breath, then slowly exhales. "I'm not mad, if that's what you mean." There is a quick pause. "To be honest, I have no idea if Marlene will help you. And if it were up to me I'd have you stay here, and we'd live it up for the last while."

I start to feel a lump form in my throat. "But, I also want you to keep on fighting." _Fighting?_ "You're fighting for your life and I respect that. It's your last wish right?" I look down. A low whisper came out of my mouth. "I guess." She was right. _But why are you leaving me? _"So keep on fighting Ellie. Until your last moments..." I hear her voice crack when she says those last words.

A tear rolls down her face. "I'm not going to stop you, if that's what you really want." I can't help but feel my heart clenching, it's painful. "Because you are the most important person in the world to me. You need this. So I'm letting you go." My vision blurs, tears are starting to form fast. I back away slowly.

_No... That's what they all say. They are letting me go because they "care". Then I never see them again. What the fuck, Riley._

I feel the hot tears stream down my face and I turn around and run towards the edge of the building. I quickly climb down on to the balcony right underneath me. I find a ladder and climb down that landing inside an ally way.

I glance in the direction of the red light Riley was pointing at earlier. Starting off in a sprint, I don't stop for anything. I don't even want to look back at her.

_How could she. How could she ever say that kind of bullshit? I would never leave her alone, even if she wanted me to..._

(*end flashback*)

There's another red light. I look both ways before coming out of my hiding spot behind the dumpster.

_No guards on my left, no guards on my right. Looks clear. _I make a sprint across the street and start running through the ally. There's a four way pass through the ally way and I look in all directions. There's a red light on the left end, so I follow that.

When I make it to the light I notice it's a small one. Its a red table lamp perched a few feet away from a door. I walk over to the entrance and look at it. _It looks like a normal door. _Unsure if I should knock, I put my hand on it instead. Right away I feel that there is a carved area on the lower right part of the door. I look closely at it. _What do you know, the Fireflies have been here. _The carving is the the mark of the Fireflies.

"Hey, when do we get to leave the city again?" I hear voices on the other side of the entrance, and they sound like they are getting closer. "I don't know man. I think there were some people that were leaving tomorrow."

I hesitate and and forget move out of the way of the opening door. "Oof!" I clumsily fall hard on my ass.

"Oh shit!" There were two guys, both of there faces covered with bandanas. They pull out their handguns and point them at me.

"W-wait. Don't shoot. I'm looking for Marlene!" I find my hands shielding my face.

"And what does a kid want with Marlene?" I look up at them, I am already starting to feel impatient. "My name is Ellie, and she made a promise with my mom to look after me, I need to see her."

"Ha!" One of them starts. "I'm calling bull shit on this one. Let me shoot her-" "Hey, hold on man, she's just a kid." The other has a softer tone in he's voice. I like him better than the other one, but I still hate them both. "So? She's not one of us." There is a pause. "Look, lets tie her up and bring her to Marlene, if she tries anything, then you can shoot her."

_Well I'm glad your willing to bring me to her, but I don't like the tying me up and shooting me part._

The nicer Firefly lowers his gun, walks up to me and offers he's hand.

_Fucking assholes, I don't want your help getting up._

I get up on my own. Meanwhile the other guy walks around me grabs my arms and starts tying them together. I shut my eyes and bite my tongue as he squeezes my wound.

"What's this?" he says, squeezing my forearm a bit tighter. I grunt at the pain it was causing. "I got shot in the arm earlier today." I manage to say.

"Oh really?" He lifts my arm and I let out a short scream, he's bending it too far. I can feel my shoulder starting to pop out of its socket. _Fuck!_

"Trevor, what are you doing?" With that, the so called Trevor stops and I fall back to the ground, not sure if I should hold on to my aching shoulder or my burning wound. "I was just-" "Is that really necessary? Tying up a hurt child?"

I'm not sure, but I think there is a third Firefly thug with them. Unfortunately I'm too busy trying not to scream from the pain to care that much.

"Subdue her and bring her inside. I don't want her knowing her way around the base."

A second later I feel a pinch on the side of my neck and I become extremely sleepy. I feel my head hit the ground with a thud.


	4. Chapter 3: The Bite

**The Bite**

Electricity is running through my entire body, the source of the pain coming from my arm. I can't be dead, otherwise I wouldn't feel it. But there _was_ the fact that I felt like I was walking on clouds. _What the hell is happening?_ I take a few steps forward, expecting something to happen. Nothing did. With each step bringing me closer to, I don't know where, I keep going. "Where am I -ahhhhhhhh!"

I jolt up and out of unconsciousness, head pounding and heart racing from the strangely vivid dream. _Jesus, I almost died of a heart attack!_ Taking a few more deep breathes, I can feel my pulse start to slow down. But my god, my head. "What the hell happened?" I say to no one in particular. "We had to drug you." I jump at the echoing voice. Not sure which way to look, I try to inspect my surroundings to no avail. It was pitch black, not to mention I was seeing stars. I'm assuming it was from the drugs that voice was talking about. I sit in silence waiting for them to speak again, taking in the cold atmosphere. Cold hard concrete covers the ground I was laying on, and one solitary window revealing a small sliver of light ascending in to the room, I find my gaze following the light, eventually hitting a pair of dark eyes. I squint, trying to get a better look at the orbs looking back at me. _What? Who the hell is this?_ "We didn't want to run the risk of you knowing where we were hiding and you going back to tell the military."

My hearing was fuzzy and it was hard to catch every single word, but I recognized the voice. "...Marlene?" Noticing the eyes disappearing from the light, she comes closer. Foot steps getting louder with each stride she takes. I reach out my hand to try and touch her. I need a warm body, it's so fucking cold. She let's out a soft grunt, like she was having trouble leaning down. I felt her, she was close to me but I couldn't see her. "Why are you here Ellie?" My hand continues to reach for her, but she stops me, grabbing my wrist tightly, so tight I'd doubt she'd let it go any time soon. "Do you have any idea how dangerous these streets are? Especially on your own?" I ignore that and the rest of lectures and questions she throws at me. I don't need this right now. I need help. "Marlene, I am kind of in trouble." Her endless babbling stops dead in it's tracks. I can sense her face softening and then in a split second she speaks. "Really? Again? After all the trouble I go through to get you to a safe location, you get yourself in to trouble again?" Her voice is stern, what I've always imagined a mother's voice is suppose to sound like whenever you get in to trouble. Her hand is still gripping my wrist. It moves slightly and my whole body twitches from the obvious wound on my arm, unlike me in my intoxicated state of mind she can probably see. She notices the jerking and I can feel her eyes focus on my arm. Her breathing stops and so does mine.

I can hear every sound around me at this point: the drips of the water coming from out side (I'm guessing it's raining now), the mice squeaking inside the walls, and soft breathing. She must know. "What's this?" I can tell see is referring to my arm. "This is what I need help with." Finally, my eyes start adjusting to the darkness of the room and I can see Marlene's worried face. The hand that isn't already gripping my arm comes up and grabs the bloody rages from my forearm. Marlene's breathing starts up again, it's shaky. "Christ." she whispers.

I hear the cock of a gun and it echos around the room. I have no idea where it's coming from, but I know I'm fucked. _Shit, no wait. There's someone else here? What the fuck Marlene, you can't do this!_

I close my eyes, getting ready to hear the sound of a bullet going through my head, or my stomach, or my heart... I don't care as long as it's quick and doesn't hurt.

"Hold your fire." Marlene says, without so much as a stutter. The room is silent again and I feel myself sweating bullets. I feel her lean in closer, here face hovering over mine. "Ellie, what did this to you?" She said it as if I needed to stop and really think about my answer. I did. "I was bitten... By a runner." The soft breathing that I heard earlier, (That now I realize wasn't mine or Marlene's) started getting louder and seemed panicked. I hear the rattling of a loaded gun. "Don't." Marlene says. "Don't you dare." I didn't notice that she turned her head around the other way until it turn back around in my direction. "Ellie, are you positive it was an infected?" I blink. "Yeah."

Marlene let's go of my hand and gets up from her crouched position. "Give me some light." She commands. And in a second a light appears from the far corner of the room. It is then I realize how small this place is. And that Marlene and I were separated by what looked like jail bars. The bars were not at all close together. I feel like if I wasn't still this woozy from the drugs I could squeeze right through them with no problem. I'm defiantly skinny enough... She takes the source of light from the guy in the corner and comes back to me, crouching down again. Reaching in to the cell, she grabs my arm once more and brings me a bit closer the her. She pulls the bandages completely off and inspects my bite mark.

I look down at it reluctantly, scared of what I'd see. The bite was scabbing over. My skin was still the same complexion as it usually is, and besides the actual mark it's self, the rest of my arm looked fine. No black veins popping out anywhere, no rough peeling skin and no discolouration. I look back up at Marlene's face. Her eyes were fixated on the wound. I wasn't sure what to do, but I couldn't just sit there and say nothing. "I know you must have dealt with stuff like this before, that's why I came to you. Maybe you could stop it from killing me." Eyes lowering, she gets up again. I couldn't read her face, it was expressionless. "No one has any hope after getting infected, you know that." I look away from her, my heart dropping down in to my stomach. I feel sick. "How long did it take you to find the Fireflies after you were bitten?" Confused at the question, but willing to answer I say, "Almost a day." I blink at her. "Why?"

Marlene takes a struggled breath and then exhales deeply. I see tears start to form in her eyes. I stay sitting on the cold floor, speechless and confused, waiting for her to answer my question.

"You've been unconscious for more than two days Ellie. If you were to turn, it would have happened even before you found us."

At this point I'm not sure what to say. _Was that really an infected that bit me, or was it just some psycho ass face that wanted to scare me? Was it all a dream? Did I maybe bite myself and forget? Am I going crazy? _The questions kept on running through my head, each thought seeming more stupid than the last.

"You are going to have to stay in that cell for the next few days. We need to run some tests on you, see if your bite even caused an infection." My eyes trail up, looking Marlene in the face. "How long?" I hear myself say. "Until we know what happened to you." And with that both her and the guy in the corner leave the room. I am left in the darkness again.

**Hey guys, thanks for sticking to the story so far, I am so happy that there are people that are enjoying it. I will try my best to update as regularly as possible, but, just so you guys know it is midterm time for me at school so don't be surprised if I stop for a week or two. BUT I will try to not let that happen and make sure you guys get your updates.**

**Thanks again =)**


	5. Chapter 4: Hurt

It's been days since I've seen her face. I regret almost everything that happened before she left. But I don't regret the fun we had, nor what I went through to see her. And defiantly not that kiss... Oh god that kiss. My fingers come up to genitally brush against my lips and I feel my cheeks grow warm despite the cold.

It's dark and rainy. I had been walking around for a good amount of time before I found some shelter, and even then it was still so cold... I feel goosebumps creep up my bare arms. My tank is still soaked from the rain, my hair is in a frizzy mess and my skin feels grimy, probably from the blood that had stained it yesterday.

I let out a quiet sigh. I need to hear something else that's not the rain, it's too depressing. Sitting now with my legs sprawled out in front of me, my heavy boot leans to the side and it touches my backpack. I forgot it was there for a second. With nothing else better to do, I might as well look through it to see what I snatched up yesterday.

I reach in to my old bag and rummage through the food I stole from some merchants this morning. _Let's see... _Some bread, an apple, and an uncooked rat. _That rat I could probably keep until tomorrow at the latest before it goes bad. _I move the the food out of the way and reach deeper for what I was really looking for.

I slightly grin once I find it. _There you are. _In my hand is Ellie's Walkman. I open it up to see what's inside. The tape I gave her was still in there as expected. Man, I wish I could play it, but even before finding it I knew the batteries would be dead already. We left the thing playing when we started running from those stalkers. I let out another sigh.

_Ellie..._ It had literally felt like forever since I last saw her. _ I hope you're alright._ I feel myself clenching my jaw and tightening my hold on the Walkman. Was it a good idea to keep hoping Ellie was still alive? There was a reason I didn't go with her to the Fire Flies, a good one. But to be honest, I don't want to think about it. In the end everyone you will ever know will disappear.

I feel wetness come down across my face and decide it's because there's a leak in the ceiling and it's just hitting me in the face. I don't want to hurt, I've done that too much already. Even when you fight to stay with that special person, they will eventually leave you. Whether they leave you because of death, or because they simply can't stand being around you anymore, it's all the same, it will still be unbearable. It's stupid how much my chest is hurting right now.

She said I'd only be in this damn cell for a few days. It's been fucking weeks, but she keeps telling me otherwise as if I'm crazy or something. But still, Marlene is the only friendly face I've seen the whole time I've been here. Everyone else either wears face masks or stays as far away from me as possible. And the people that do come close only do it to stare at my bite mark or take blood from me. I decided I am terrified of needles, if I see one more I'm going to slap a bitch.

Fuck, I'm starting the believe that I dreamt I was bitten. Everything about me besides my arm says I'm perfectly fine. I've had a few doctors come in and out telling me that exact same thing. "She's fine." "Her blood shows signs of the virus, yet she has no visible symptoms of the infected." "This is truly puzzling." But none of them have yet to do anything about all of this. I've heard the word 'immune' be thrown around between Marlene and the guys in white on more than a few occasions. I'm not sure anymore if that's a good thing, but if it is, it's always either said in good context or bad, they are just sending me mixed signals now. Others say that I'm just taking extra long to be effected by the illness and that it'd be best I stay locked up to wait for my decent in to ugly flesh eating monster.

_I'd personally prefer not to be locked up, thank you very much. Dick._

Everyone's heads swivel around to look at me. _Oh shit, did I say that out low? _Marlene walks over to me, leaving the others behind her to stay in the corner. "Listen, Ellie. We believe that you are immune. We aren't sure how or why. Either way, we need to find out." I blink. _So, what does this mean then?_ As if she read my mind she continues. "This means you are now high priority to the Fire Flies. You may be humanity's hope in finding a cure." I blink a few more times before I actually register what she is saying to me. I feel my brow tighten under the news. Not sure whether I should be happy about this or not. "So now what? I'm immune, so what? How is that going to help cure anything?"

Marlene kneels down and inches closer to me from outside the bars. I hear her let out a small sigh. "Where we are currently, it's not possible to get any sort of cure out of you. We'd need a lab, with scientists and more experienced doctors." I hear one of the doctors in the back cough and it makes me smile a little. Marlene raises a brow but then continues. "The thing is, any smugglers I had before are now all dead... I'll have to arrange something for you to get brought over."

I pick up on something I've been wanting to do for the longest time. "I'm leaving the quarantine zone?" I think my voice sounded a little too excited. The edges of Marlene's lips look like they are curling up a bit, it's weird seeing her almost smile, she's always so serious.

"Yes, you will be leaving the quarantine zone." I'm not sure what to think at that point. I'm overjoyed but I feel unsure at the same time. What about Riley?

The thought of Riley makes my stomach drop. _Oh god... we never had to part like that... and now I'm leaving._ The thought of Riley being left in Boston alone ails me. Sure she can handle herself, but for how long? On her own. As capable as she is, she's still a kid like me. Sooner or later an adult will find her and bring her back to the military academy, or worse...

My gaze drops to the floor and I hear the rustling of jeans. Marlene gets up and walks back to the doctors at the other end of the room. They mumble some words to one another and make their way back outside. Light leaks in from the door and I wince at the pain of the rays as they come in to my line of vision, it burns. Blinded by the light, but my hearing picks up Marlene speaking once more. "Your mother would be proud of you Ellie. Just think, Ellie, the daughter of Anna is the cure for all humanity." She chuckles and that's the last thing I hear before I am sent back in to the comfortable darkness. Nothing around me but metal walls.

I need to some how let Riley know I am alright. But I am stumped on how I'd get in contact with her... Last I saw of her, she didn't seem all too concerned about me. She let me find my own way. Why? Obviously she was scared, you'd have to be stupid not to realize it. But the fact that she just abandoned me... I can't even begin to process her reasoning behind it. Was she only looking out for herself? Was she hoping that by not going with me I'd have a better chance of finding help from the Fire Flies? None of it adds up. In the end it's all probably because she was looking out for herself. I realize this whole time I was clenching my fists so hard that my fingernails were digging in to the palm of my hand. I can feel a bit of blood trickle down my hand as I release it.

Riley has always had such a huge effect on me. It's weird how one person can make you the happiest person in the world or the sadist, and it's almost terrifying. I feel my stomach drop again, worse than before. _Riley._

The next day Marlene takes me out of the cell and gives me some new clothes and a backpack. She tells me that it's better I travel with long sleeves so no one will find out about my "gift". The backpack, well that's self explanatory.

Her along with two other Fire Flies escort me across the city to a small hold. "Stay here Ellie. I need to do a few things before we set off to the check point." At this point I'm kind of lost as to what exactly is going on. "Wait, Marlene. Will you be back soon?" The two other Fire Flies leave the small room and it's just Marlene and I left. She turns around to look at me in the eye. "I won't be long. I just need to pay Robert a visit." I raise an eyebrow. "Who's Robert?" She shakes her head. "I will tell you about it when I get back." She gives me a reassuring smile before tspinning on her heel and quickly leaving the room.

I hear some rustling on the other side of the door and check underneath. It looks like they moved something in front of the entrance to keep from anyone just walking in. "Huh. I feel safer already." I am oddly in a good mood. _I'm finally getting out of this hell hole! _Once Marlene came back she was going to take me outside and hand me over to another Fire Fly squad who will then take me to... actually I think she left out the part of where exactly I was going. But knowing Marlene she won't tell me, I'll probably have to ask the new Fire Fly guys after.

**AN: Apologies for the lengthy time in updating, it's been a crazy few weeks with school finishing up. I'm graduating, yayyy!**

**Now for the story, I am actually going to be going in a new direction for it. I've written up and thought of a lot of cool ideas i want to explore in this story. Granted, it will take sometime to update, but I promise you I will push my writing skills to the max for this! I'm so excited to continue this! And I just hope you will enjoy it. Till next time**

**-Nat**


	6. Chapter 5: Outside

_2 weeks before Ellie Left Boston..._

With nothing else to do in Boston I made the decision to leave on my own. There was nothing else left for me here, I needed to find a new place, somewhere where I could start new without having to deal with the memories that haunted me here.

The first day of travel I just picked a direction I wanted to go and went on my way. It didn't really matter where I was going, so long as I got out of the city somehow. After about a day of walking and sneaking by the military (I've gotten really good at sneaking and stealthing, I'm pretty awesome like that.), I noticed a woman with brown hair and a bandana at the edge of the city. I tailed her, hoping she would show me a way out and with luck she did. I barely kept up, she was being stealthy too, and I had to admit she was pretty good.

She crept up to a wall and seemed to start staring at it. After a few moments she found a crease on the surface and pulled on it revealing what looked like a passage way in to the building. As she disappeared in to the newly revealed entrance I sprinted over before the entrance closed. Cautious not to let the woman know I was following her I waited a few seconds before going in.

When I decided it was a good time, I averted my eyes to my surroundings, making sure the coast was clear before going in. I left a small leaf in between the crack of the door way, just so I knew where it was in case I needed to come back. Hey, I was trying to think and be more careful these days. Ever since the accident that I caused with Ellie... Never mind. I try not to think about it anymore.

Making sure I was as quiet as possible, I started to listen for the foot steps of the woman. I heard them about 10 meters away, quiet and slow, but still there. I tried to copy her movements, just in case I was loud enough for her to hear me, she might think it's her own foot steps.

The passage way was dark and damp, and I could have sworn I saw about two dozen rats in there. The passage way felt like a long tunnel that just kept on going, eventually leading me underground through some stairs. With every quiet and careful step I took I started to feel more anxious. I had every reason to be. Where the hell was this woman leading me? Not that I expected her to take me exactly where I wanted to go but... actually I think I did. Damn it.

It was a good fifteen minutes before she lead me to what seems to be ground level again, but the tunnel kept on going. It wasn't until she seemed to find some she knew that we finally made it back outside. Her and some old guy stopped at the exit and started talking. Desperate to get out of this place I inched closer to the exit, getting ready to sprint out once they got out of the way.

"What do you mean Bill left already?" The woman sounded frustrated, and I decided she scared me. "His shipment was small this month, Tess. He came dropped off this and left right away." The man's voice sounded just as frustrated but he didn't seem nearly as intimidating as that Tess woman did, probably because of his funny sounding accent. "Shit. I needed to talk to that bastard. He just keeps on slipping away. He knows he owes me some favours." The man sighed. "Yeah I know, he owes me too, but you know how he is." I heard a bit of rustling where the pair were standing and I look over to see whats going on. The man looks pretty old, maybe late 40s or something. He was older than the woman for sure. And Tess's voice matched her face, intimidating. She seemed to be looking through a bag. I heard what sounded like bottles of pills, and maybe bullets.

At that moment I remembered I had ran out of ammo form my own gun a few days ago when I went back for my stuff at the mall. _Shit. I _really_ should have thought this through. Dammit. _I mentally slapped myself once for each mess up I've made today. Was it four times? Or five? I lost count.

"God, when you said he had a small shipment, you meant it. This will barely last a week." I felt myself start to tap my knee. I was kneeling down at that point just waiting for them to go. "Don't hold that against him, he said he's had it rough this month in general, and I'm willin' to bet he's not the only smuggler havin' trouble.." My ears perked up at the word smuggler. This tunnel had to have been used at least once a month for illegal supply shipment. Well, that would have been a good thing to know while I was living in the city...

I sat there for a few more minutes tuning out the couple while they rambled on about other stuff that I didn't care to listen to. The only other things I gathered from the rest of the conversation was that the guy's name was Joel and that who ever this Bill guy was, he was going to 'get it' the next time they saw him.

The two eventually close up the opening behind them and walk back in to the passage where Tess had come from. I sat alone in the dark for a few more minutes before I decided that they were far enough to not hear me moving the door of the entrance. The so called door was a big plank of wood. Kind of heavy, but I managed to move it without making too much noise.

The air smelt so fresh and clean. I turned around and found myself staring at more green than I had ever seen in my life. There were trees left, right and centre, and the ground was covered with thick grass. It was almost surreal. In the city I had never seen this much greenery. I was so use to seeing the grey of buildings that I had never imagined the outside would be so different. At that moment I understood why I heard a lot of adults use the expression "The grass is greener on the other side". I never thought it could have been taken literally.

I took a few steps and felt the lush green on my boots. It even felt different to walk on the outside! I felt a rush of excitement go through me. _I made it._ I smile rushed it's way up to my face at the thought. That was the whole reason I wanted to join the Fire Flies in the first place. Freedom. It was something the military could never give me. I knew there were a lot of risks with becoming a Fire Fly, but if it meant freedom from quarantine zones then it was definitely worth it.

I snapped out of my thoughts as I heard what sounded like birds singing in harmony. They sounded a bit far off and it urged me to go find them. It was the first time I heard so many birds singing together so happily. This is what freedom felt like. I knew I was never going to go back. I felt that I could really leave it all behind and forget about it. So I kept on walking, each step leading me farther and farther away for those memories. Away from her. The only person that made me feel special. The one I just let go of because I was too scared. _Shit!_ I was doing it again!

I let out a quiet sigh and mentally hit myself again for the screw up. This was becoming ridiculous.

* * *

After a few days of travelling out in this new world I came to realize living alone and in peace was going to be much harder than I thought. Everywhere I went there seemed to be groups of infected just hanging around. I cut through a building only to find hoards of them inside. With nowhere else to go I made sure I stayed out of sight so I would not get torn apart by those things (that'd be the worst way to go I think).

I encountered my first clicker in that building too. Well, first 5 or so actually. In military school they taught us all about the four stages of infected, including the clickers' stage. I wasn't as worried about them as I was the other kinds. Clickers were blind and only attacked their prey when provoked or alerted of your presence. I can do stealth, so I felt I did a good job with avoiding them. There were a lot of close calls while I was dodging all the infected and I felt a surge of pride every time I came out of something unscathed.

I did make a note however, to not get too ahead of myself. I needed to really start drilling it in to my mind that I wasn't invisible and that I could die at any moment out here. I never let that distract me though. I never let the thought of dying get in the way of my own survival. I had more important things to worry about. Like which way should I go. And what I need to do for my next meal.

Fortunately for me, I found cutting through buildings worked in many ways to my advantage. Not only were they shortcuts, but they were great places to find supplies and sometimes even food.

I also felt like I became an expert at crafting. I remembered survival skills in school, like how to make medi-kits and create shivs for self defence. I even found an awesome manual on how to create Molotovs (I'm still trying to get it prefect). I have always wanted to learn how to make explosives. That's the one thing I regretted from leaving military school so early. Once you turned 17 they would teach you how to make and handle explosives.

I felt myself grow more and more confident everyday I was out on my own. Getting use to being alone was not as bad as I thought, but it did have it's down sides. A lot of the time I found myself starting conversations with myself and laughing myself to sleep at night. It was weird at first but as time went on it started to feel normal.

I eventually found something that looked like a highway and followed it for a few miles. _This area doesn't seem so bad. I haven't seen any infected all day._ I considered the possibility of becoming one of those people who live in abandoned cars on the highway (A bum?). I could totally do it. I had spotted a few abandoned SUVs a few miles back. But my stomach said otherwise when it rumbled in my ears. Ugh... I needed to find some food before deciding what to do with the rest of my life.

As my gaze came up from my stomach to the horizon, I noticed what looked like an antenna peaking out from over the trees at the edge of the highway. _There must be a town or city near b_ was the harm in stopping by and gather something to eat, right? I found no reason not to, but that was probably my stomach thinking for me at that point.

I hopped over the small fence at the edge of the road, jogged down the slope and in to the woods. It didn't take long before I found a fence leading in to what looked like (yup, I guessed it) a small town. I looked around, noticing a big sign the said Lincoln on the front. Guess that's what the place was called. I was never very good with city names so it was not surprising I had never heard of this place before.

I looked back at the fence. It was pretty tall and barb wired at the top, so there was no hope for me climbing it. I took my time finding a way around it to no avail. Eventually becoming annoyed at the amount of time I had wasted, I was about to give up before I found a small gap in between the fence and the ground. Digging it up a bit, I was able to squeeze through. It pays off to be scrawny sometimes I guess. I give a shrug and move on.

After spending a bit of time walking around I found a few more bullets and some food. I ate most of it but I figured it would be best to stick around for a little bit longer to find more food for later before leaving.

I eventually came across some housing and thought it'd be a good idea to scout the area. There was bound to be a ton of stuff I could use. Carefully stealthing my way through each house, I found some supplies I could use. It was certainty a hell of a lot better than nothing. I eventually a house that looked a bit nicer and bigger than the others, it had to have some goodies inside. Excited for what I'd fine inside this one, I quietly skipped over to the sliding screen door to check if it'd open. Tch, figures. It was locked. I scanned the house to look for any opening. _That's weird, most of the houses around here are open, this one seems like it's locked up tight. _I stood there and pondered at the possibilities as to why it would be locked. As far as I saw there was nothing in this town other than a few infected roaming around but that was it.

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of something hitting the wall of the house on my right side. I was facing the sliding doors and I saw what made the noise. There was an arrow jutting out of the wall of the house, dangerously close to where I was standing. Without hesitating I whip myself around to see where it came from. A man with an agonized look on his face, fumbling with a bow trying to get another arrow in place.

I raised my hands in hopes that they would provide some protect. "Stop!" I hear my voice squeak. The man pulled back on his bow and aimed, keeping one eye on me. I found my legs were stuck, and realized that this was the first time since leaving the quarantine zone that I had been in any direct danger. The sound of the arrow letting loose cut through the air. This was it. And before I realized it, I heard a snap and noticed I was still standing. "Crap!" The man yelled. I peered back up at him and he was once again clumsily trying to get another shot ready.

Slightly taken aback by this guy, I decided to try a different approach. "Please. I don't mean any harm. I was just passing by to look for supplies." Instead of an arrow the man shot back a jumble of words. "W-Who sent you! I know you want to kill me! Just leave me alone!" He's voice was shaky. "Look, I don't want to kill anyone okay. I'm tired and hungry. I just wanted to look around this place before leaving." The man seemed surprised at my statement. "Leave?" I frowned. "Yeah, I don't plan on staying in a town full of infected forever..."

He started to lower the bow. "You... know a way out of this place?"

I decided getting him to like me would the best option at this point. _ Here I go._ "Well, yeah. I found my way in here." He gulped and inched closer to me. I inched back. "...Where?" his voice was quiet and desperate. I gave him what I hoped looked like a genuine smile. "Over in that direction." I pointed to were I remembered coming in to Lincoln. The man swerved his head around and looked to where I was pointing. After a pause his head snapped back to look at me and he raised he's bow again. "L-liar. That part of town is crawling with infected."

My hands come back up to cover my body from the gaze of his arrow. "N-no! I swear. I came from that way. And yeah, there were a lot of infected in that area, but I snuck passed them all." He gave me another astonished look, but this time with a hint of what I guessed was admiration.

We stood there for a moment. I didn't breath that whole time, so I was the first to break the silence. "You seem like you want to leave-" "Yes. Yes, I _need_ to leave. I have been stranded here for too long." A bit of relief washed over me as he once again lowered his bow. He looked like he was trembling.

There was another pause before I thought of something else to say, desperate to keep this guy from shooting me in the face. "I..um. Could help you find a way out of here." Although I said that, I really doubted I would pull through on it. I honestly didn't want to help this guy.

His eyes widened at my words and he completely lowers his bow, slowly walking over to me. "Really?" I give him a quick nod, hoping he'd keep some distance. I saw his adam's apple bob in his throat and cringed, it was really noticeable. He frowned and looked down. I feel his gaze trail up my body. Uncomfortable, I shuffled my feet side to side a bit. The guy seemed to have regained some of his composure before he spoke again. "Well, you're just a kid. I suppose you're not much of a threat." With that he walked passed me and started unlocking the slide door to the house. I felt my temper rise but tried to ignore it.

I knew that I had to be nice to get what I needed, so I'd be nice. In a moment the door slid open and he walked in. I came in after him, but he stopped me half way. His face came close to mine. "No funny business alright. I'm warning you, if you try anything your getting your head blown off. I have guns." I try my best to keep my face neutral. "Fine." He nods and moves out of the way. I slide passed him and find myself in an oddly cozy looking home. There was a glowing lantern on a table in the living room that was right at the entrance to the backyard. There were supplies scattered across the counters of the kitchen and even a small pile of hunting rifles and shot guns in the corner. This guy had a lot going for him. Although if he wanted out of this town I wasn't sure how he was going to bring all this stuff, assuming he wanted to (But really, you'd be stupid not to bring this stuff along).

After getting a quick look around I was convinced I needed to get friendly with this guy. I turned around to face him. He was just looking at me and he quickly averted his eyes to the floor. Something told me this guy hadn't talked to another person in a long time. Well, at least we had something in common.

Unsure of what else to say, I blurt out what first comes to mind when meeting someone new. "I'm Riley." His gaze directed itself back to me. Face softened a bit, he took a second to speak. "I... I'm Frank."

* * *

A/N: Hello everyone! So this will just be a heads up. For those of you who are now wondering, YES this is a Riley/Ellie story and YES they will see each other again, however, I warn you, that won't be for a few more chapters down the line. I am planning to have **two** different parts to the story. The first part will focus a lot on Riley's journey (Since Ellie's journey with Joel was covered in the game), it will contain her character development (Which is something I really want to explore...what kind of person is Riley?), tension building and all that good stuff. The second part is were the(kinda sorta spoiler, but not really) girls will find each other and be all fluffy and what not. But until then it will be more actiony and adventurey. Once the second part starts I will label where specifically it is and provide a quick summary of the first part, just encase you happen to just want to read Rellie...Though I hope you read part one since I have put a lot of thought in to it. Thanks to everyone who is sticking along and have faved/reviewed, it is very much appreciated! Till next time!

-Nat


	7. Chapter 6: Guilt

**Present**

It had been a few hours since I first walked in to Frank's humble abode. He had given me the green light to have a look around the house.

The guy really wasn't as vicious as he first played off to be. By the time I finish my little walk-through of the house, I take a seat in one of the armchairs and Frank passes me a cup of tea. "Thanks." I feel a small pull at the edges of my lips and take the mug from him. I think this is green tea. _Yup, that's pretty green. _Bringing the cup up close to my lips, I take a swig of the hot drink. _Jesus! _I cough it all back up and and begin panting, trying to take in as much cool air as possible. My tongue was stinging under the heat of the tea.

Frank chuckles but quickly brings over a rag. He hands it to me and I start wiping myself down. "I'm guessing you've never had tea before?" "No, I've had it before!" I say partially annoyed. My tongue feels swollen so I realize I must sound ridiculous to him because he laughs again. "Haha. Are you sure?" I pause, giving myself as much time as possible to regain feeling in my tongue. "Okay, well technically I've had tea. But I've never had it that hot before." There's another pause and Frank is giving me this look that provokes me to continue. "Why did you make it so hot?" His face looks amused now, laughing through his nose, he continues. "Kid, that's how tea is suppose to be taken." I blink, giving him the _you are making absolutely no sense _look. He bursts out in to a fit of laughter, leaving me feeling sheepish and ignorant. I huff and try to ignore his obnoxious howling.

I cross my arms, pulling them close to my chest and waited for Frank to finish. "You done?" I say after what feels like an eternity. His eyes have become wet with happy tears, and he didn't look like he was going to be giving any attempt at wiping them away anytime soon. "Just about." He takes in a deep breath and then let's out a loud sigh. "Gosh, I'm sure glad I figured out how to boil water. I haven't had a good laugh in forever!" I couldn't help but notice the warmth in my heart when I saw this guy smiling. It has been a while since I've seen a friendly face and I find that I had really missed being around someone. Frank...he was alright.

"Hey. Um," I feel my gaze trail down towards my boots. They all of a sudden become really interesting to look at. There was this stain on my left boot that was really..._focus._ I look back up and find Frank is paying full attention to me now. No laughing, no smiling, he just looked at me waiting for me to continue. "Where are you from?" I notice his brow perk up at the question. "I mean like, where were you born? And what was it like before...you know. It all went to shit." I can feel the bitter taste of anger in my tone of voice. I hope it didn't come off sounding too rude or anything.

Frank clears his throat and takes a moment to gather what he wanted to say, it was either that or he was probably wondering why I'd ask him something as personal as that. I shift in my seat a little, not sure what else to do. Finally he spoke, "I was born in Canada actually." Again, my geography skills are really none existent, so I raise an eyebrow at him. He seems to get that I am unsure of where that is. "It's one country over, up north. Get's pretty chilly up there." I give him a small nod. "I lived close to a big city, Toronto." "Toronto." I repeat. It's an odd name for a city, but hey, Boston and Lincoln are weird names too. "Right. And well, since the outbreak appeared first in the U.S, it took some time for it to reach us." He closes his eyes, face forming wrinkles around the eyes and mouth. "But when it did, it had hit full force. Our military at the time wasn't as strong as America's so we really suffered." The sound of his voice starts to form a dark undertone. He almost sounds like a bad guy at this point. "People were getting infected all around me, everyday. Eventually I found myself down here in Massachusetts. And here I met someone who took me in and helped me come out of the depression I was in after I lost my family." He lowers his head, eyes half lidded. "He was a great person. But he... I had to leave..." I give a dry swallow. Fully immersed in the story I want to urge him to go on, but I don't want him to feel like he needs to tell me.

Regardless, he sits there, silent. It's quiet between the two of us, and at the moment all I can hear is the faint sound of crickets chirping from outside (and maybe some faint moaning coming from the infected down a few blocks). I start to feel a tinge of tension between us again and try to break the silence before it gets worse. "Don't worry, I get it." Frank's eyes slowly start to close. "I left someone important to me too." He doesn't move and I'm not even sure if he's listening, but I continue. "Boston, that's were she got bitten." A noticeable lump starts to form in my throat. _Jesus, it always has to come back to her doesn't it? _I take a breathe and try to continue. "Her name was Ellie." At this point I am averting my eyes downward, staring at my hands in my lap. Tears start to blur up my vision and I close my eyes, trying desperately to hide them. I inhale deeply through my nose. "We were together when it happened... it was my fault she was bitten. I was scared and wasn't sure what to do... so I..." I'm honestly not sure I have the nerve to continue.

"Say no more Riley." I look back up at Frank who is now looking straight at me. "We both left someone we cared about. But I can assure you would have done it for the best." My head falls back down and I hear the rustling of rags, he gives me a fresh one and I use it to wipe my face again. "She was important to you. But you had all the reason to go. You can't always be there for someone, especially when there is not much you can do. You shouldn't beat yourself up about it." I can't find it in me to look up at him, ashamed and broken, I feel humiliated.

I sit there for a few minutes doing nothing, not thinking of much other than how stupid it was to let her go, and just feeling like shit. _He probably thinks your insane._ _Not that I really care what he thinks, I only met him today. _A loud sigh escapes my lips and I get up and walk to the bigger couch on the far side of the room. Tired and worn out from the full day of scavenging, I hadn't realize just how exhausted I was. I just need to sleep. Laying down on my side, face looking toward the back of the couch. I shift a few times trying to get comfortable, it's kind of hard on such a lumpy couch, but I manage. My eye lids quickly grow heavy and I feel the rest of my body go limp as I drift off to sleep.

* * *

So I just met this old couple. Well, I think they are a couple, they keep giving each other googly eyes whenever the other isn't looking so I'm going to assume that they have it bad for each other.

Right before Marlene handed me off to them she made me promise to not tell them anything about what was going on with my bite or immunity. She said it was unnecessary and could be dangerous for if I told anyone. I just agreed and decided not to question it.

After what felt like an eternity of running from the military, these two; Joel and Tess, got me outside of the quarantine zone. Tess asked me what my deal was, why I seemed so important to the Fire Flies. I figured, why the hell not. They kinda saved my life and they seemed like decent people anyways. So I just told them. Fortunately for me Tess seemed to be with it, but Joel was a huge dick about the whole situation. I tried to forget it and just focus on the fact that I was MOTHERFUCKIN OUTSIDE!

It's crazy, I'm outside and it's raining buckets. I don't know whether I should be over joyed or pissed off. I usually hate the rain (the feeling of being soaked makes me uncomfortable) but being outside for the first time makes the rain just seem like a refreshing shower. I've pretty fucking hyped now. It's bigger than I thought it would be. The horizon expands out farther than I can see. And the building are enormous! It's crazy! I'm sure Riley would have loved this!

I feel my legs start to slow down once I think about her. For the last few weeks my feelings about the whole Riley leaving me thing have been jumbled up. I had so much time in that cell to myself to just stop and think. On the one hand, I tried looking at the whole situation from Riley's point of view, and when I really thought about it, it made sense. The whole ordeal would play over and over in my head, whether I was dreaming or conscious, that day just haunted me day and night. But I knew that despite what happened, I forgive her. I couldn't stay mad at her anymore, not after what happened between us.

Thing is though, at this point I have no idea if she is even still alive. If she is though, would she think I had made it? Probably not.

I shake the thought out of my head and truck along behind Tess and Joel. This was going to be a long trip.

* * *

My eyes flutter open as my nose catches the scent of the cool, clean summer breeze. It was really a smell I had a hard time getting use to. Fresh air was always are to come by when you lived in the city. I draw in a deep breathe through my nose and take in the pleasant scent. Feeling quite rested, I push myself up from the couch. Something falls from my shoulder. It's a blanket, I figure Frank was the one responsible for that. I shrug it off and sit up right. It's gotten dark outside and I'm guessing Frank went to sleep. I sit there for a moment contemplating what I should do now. _Should I take some of his supplies and get out of here?_ I considered thought thought for a moment, but I didn't want to do that, not after what the guy has done for me. I let out a small sigh. It would be the smart, survival thing to do. The guy didn't seem like he'd be too useful outside, but then again who am I to judge? I just barely learned how to use a gun.

Having enough of this inner conflict, I force myself on my feet. Legs a bit sore from the constant walking, they always seem sore now a days. I walk toward the stairs that lead up to the second floor and find a room with an open window. It's just open a crack so I pull it all the way, it makes a creaking sound but nothing too loud. I just don't want Frank to think I'm ditching him. I step out of the window and land on the roof of the house. The roof is sloped and it is quite steep but I am able to walk up it without any problems. Taking a seat at the top, I lean back on my arms and look up at the night sky. It was a clear night, a nice change from the constant rain we've had the days prior.

I take in another deep breathe savouring the sweet smell of freedom. It felt so right and I had a strong feeling that I will eventually find somewhere I could live peacefully without infected. I paused for a second, my thoughts getting all jumbled up. Should I stick with Frank and maybe he'd help me find this place? It was an odd thought, considering I had just met him, but it was nice having him around. How could it be a bad thing?

All of a sudden I hear heavy footsteps getting close. I open my eyes to see Frank standing there giving me a dorky looking half smile. I never thought much of it, but the guy had a bit of greying areas in his hair. I had rightfully assumed he was older, but how much older I wasn't sure. But guessing that he was alive to see the outbreak start had to have meant he was older than 20. Maybe he was in his late 30s? It could be possible. Should I ask? _Nah, that's too soon._

"May I?" I blink and suddenly realize he has just been awkwardly standing there for a good while. "Oh, uh, sure!" I scoot over to the side and let him set next to me (probably unnecessary since he had the whole roof to sit on). He takes the offer with enthusiasm, quickly taking a seat. He mimics my sitting position from earlier, arms back, looking up at the stars. "I thought you were taking off." There some sadness in his voice. "Oh. No, I just wanted some fresh air." Lame excuse but it was mostly true.

"Where you thinking of how you were going to get out of this town?" I let his question sink in before answering it right away. My eyes follow the horizon and I find myself getting mesmerized by the mystery of it all. What was out there? I needed to know. "Yeah actually." The weight of his gaze was weighing down on me, but I didn't mind it. "But I had been thinking about that since the moment I stepped foot in this place. I was really thinking of something else." I drag on the pause, once again thinking through what I wanted to said. If it was even worth saying. Frank didn't seem to move or make a sound. I was probably making the guy anxious with my constant play on words. I kind of feel like I like leaving him in the dark with things I've been telling him. "I was actually thinking, if after I get us out of here you'd want to tag along with me." I had intended it to sound like a question, but the way I ended up saying it made it sound like it was happening. I shift my gaze toward him and he is looking at me slightly wide eyed.

_Oh crap, I think that was too much. Dammit Riley._ "I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to, it'd be totally fine if you just wanted to go your own way. I wouldn't force you or anything, that'd be weird. A 15 year old kid telling an adult what to do, haha, weird, huh?" I was rambling, but it was hard to stop. I feel like I had completely forgotten how to talk to another human being and it was killing me. My pride is shot. _Ugh, I'm so embarrassing._

A smile spreads across Franks face as he gives me a quick embrace and then quickly moves away again. "I'd love it if I could tag along." My face looks up to his and my lips curve in to a smile. I lunge forward grabbing him and giving him a real hug. "You give terrible hugs Frank." He says nothing and we sit there for a while enjoying the sounds around us.

The next hour or so we sat there not saying much of anything to each other, mainly just enjoying each others company.

"Did you want to leave this place in the morning?" It's the first time Frank has spoken since he said he'd stick with me. "Yeah sure. I mean if you're ready, then so am I." He gives a small nod. His arms are resting on his knees and he's sitting cross legged. He looks like a kid sitting like that, it's pretty funny to see. "Alright then." I sit there thinking for a moment. "You have a lot of cool stuff stashed in the house. Were you planning on bringing it all?" I knew that if Frank was going to tag along he really should bring his stuff. It would make things so much easier to have all that fire power at our disposable. "Yes actually." Surprised by the response, I wasn't sure what to say, did he have a backpack that big? "Do you have a huge backpack or something?" The words come out before I register it. He chuckles and shakes he's head. "I've actually been meaning to get a truck up an running." There is a pause between the both of us. "A truck?" I sounded more surprised than I intended.

"Yeah, there is this pick up truck in the garage. The thing is, it needs a new battery. It has probably been sitting there for years, so the battery is fried." A frown forms on me. "So then what good is it to you if the battery is dead?" He turns his whole body in my direction and he looks like he is preparing to wow me with an amazing presentation. "The other day a military tank came in to town looking for supplies. Long story short the guys were attacked by infected and left their tank here in town. I was planning on going in and getting the battery so I could use it to power up the truck." Stopping to think over the story, it sounded legit. And possibly even doable, as long as he knew how to wire up a car battery in to a truck, because I sure as hell didn't. I inhale deeply and think of how to word my next question. "Where is this tank?" That was simply enough. He turns his head to the left and points off into the distance. "It's pretty dark, but can you see that big score board down there?" I look in the direction he is pointing and sure enough I see a large score board/sign thing not to far from us. "Yeah." "That's where the school is; where the tank is right now."

I look back over to him to find a worried expression on his face. "I was planning on just running in and getting it. Kind of a suicide mission, but I think if you can teach me how to get passed those infected it'd be no problem." He looks back at me with a huge grin. At a lose for words I return the smile. "Sure thing."

His mouth hangs open in surprise. "Are you serious?" I shrug. "Yeah, totally. If it means I don't have to walk across the country to find a nice place to live than why not?" He gives a gleeful little squeal and hugs me again. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

* * *

_**If you happened to find errors, please pay no mind. I am having trouble finding an editor!**_


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